Live the life of your dreams

After over forty years in property and real estate it is becoming clearer and clearer to me that buying property wholesale beats paying retail. Don’t get me wrong buying retail is better than not doing it at all, but given what I know now when you purchase wholesale you are way in front straight away.

Now you will ask “How do I do this” and I would simply say buy property in a ‘Collective.’ In other words get a group of people together and buy a property and develop it together.

This is not new or rocket science, but clearly you need to know what to buy and where to buy and there are many experienced people who do this well. The problem is there is also many out there selling education to do this and leaving people with a bit of knowledge and then offering to do it for them and charging exorbitant fees. There are others pushing people to buy property that they have a share in or property spruikers selling overpriced property that is supposedly cheap.

If what I am suggesting strikes a chord with you, I am thinking of doing this with groups of people in a collective and not just in residential, but commercial property as well.

It saddens me that there is so much opportunity for people to create wealth through property, which does not get explored and I see so many people retiring on a pension. This is crazy; there is a better way.

In due course I will be blogging about this further and if you are at all interested please feel free to email me at Bertram@itsabreeze.com.au and I will put you on a list to get first bite at the cherries that I come across.

“Real estate investing, even on a very small scale, remains a tried and true means of building an individual’s cash flow and wealth.” – Robert Kiyosaki (author of Rich Dad Poor Dad).

What I love about this idea is that you do not have to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars, because it is done in a collective where small becomes big.

The more I traverse the area of wealth creation through property the more I keep coming up with the same issues. What should normally be a simple concept can become very hard to do.

Any number of things can get in our way when we’re trying to get financially free, however many of them fall under the category of being self-inflicted. So if you can look at these barriers and conquer them, you should be well on the way to creating wealth through property.

So let’s look at them one by one:

Mindset

The sad part of this is that it is all in your own mind and as a consequence could easily be changed, but you might have years of negative programming that stops you.

Consider this; we are not educated to become wealthy. You might be lucky to have a parent or relative that educated you differently, but by and large we are not programmed to create wealth. If we were why would 87% of our population retire on less than $35,000 per annum.

It might sound ever so simple, but all you have to do is to decide that you want to retire comfortably and by todays standards that is supposed to be over $60,000 p.a. Once you have made this decision you can move onto the next issue.

Become comfortable with debt

I wrote about the concept of O.P.S.M. before and that is using Other Peoples Safe Money to create wealth and by that I mean borrowing money at today’s interest rates (say 4%) and investing it at a better return than the repayments (say 8%). If you think that 4% is not a good return have a look at the dividends that many public companies give you on your shares and consider that you cannot leverage shares like you can property. So you are well in front and furthermore property doubles every seven to ten years (in Melbourne).

For instance, Donald Trump has made a fortune using other people’s money!

I’m sure he is extremely comfortable with debt.

Time Management

Like most people would-be property investors have a job and other obligations that take up a lot of their time and many of them try to do everything themselves, instead of leveraging the knowledge and/or services of professionals who have been where they are and they end up worn out and exhausted. I’ve seen it time and again.

People are excited about the wealth creation possibilities through property investing. They pick up every property investing magazine, join clubs, hang out on forums, etc., forgetting that they have other things in their life that require attention too. And while these things are great, if you don’t have a balance you burn out and give up, with another failed attempt at finding financial freedom. There is an easier way and that is to ask for help and assistance.

Lack of Market Knowledge

I make it my business to follow the property investment market and have access to plenty of information and I often hear “gloom and doom” merchants in the market place, with a vested interest in selling you something.

Are these people right? Perhaps on the odd occasion, but more often they’re not, they’re just repeating what they’ve been told.

If you have no real idea of what to look for you’re simply taking a stab in the dark when you buy an investment property and yet that can still work for you. But knowing and understanding the key market drivers is more helpful to successfully invest in property or all you have to do is ask.

In summary let me give my favourite diagram:

1.Get your mindset right

2. Get the right information

3. Create the right strategy

4. Take the right action

It really is simple and if you do not know how all you have to do is ask!

Do you feel like a hamster caught in a wheel on a never-ending chase to get to a point where you can sit back and relax?

The trouble is if you don’t know where you are going, any road can get you there, but any road can get you lost. And nowhere is this truer than property investing.

No matter at what stage you are in your investment cycle, be it nearing retirement, or as a young couple starting a family, it’s never too late to create an investment strategy and build wealth.

All I can say is that the sooner you invest, the more profound the compounding impact of your portfolio will be and you will begin to move towards that day, where you can sit back, relax and let the money work for you; instead of you, working for the money.

But if you don’t really know why you want to build a property portfolio or how it will one day get you out of the rat race and if you don’t really know where you are heading, how will you know which properties to buy? How will you know if you’re on track and on target?

Well do not despair, because we are here to solve ALL of these issues and problems.

Yes, a one stop shop that will look at your situation in depth, formulate an individual strategy just for you and then help and assist you to achieve financial freedom.

It does not matter whether you are just starting out in life or a young family or nearing your retirement; we will have a plan for you.

All you have to do is email Bertram@itsabreeze.com.au with the heading ‘I want Financial Freedom’ and I will send you a questionnaire from which the plan will be prepared.

So don’t delay; do it now and you will be ion the road to financial freedom!

Now before you say “Not wealth creation again,” hear me out. What if I told you that I am saying it for a very good reason, which is; that you have the power within you to create wealth through property and if you are not doing this already, you are missing out BIG TIME!

So what am I talking about? It is the very simple and unbelievably effective tool of compounding interest. Hear me out.

Albert Einstein, when asked what the most powerful force on Earth was, answered, “compound interest.” He also called it the “8th wonder of the world.” Ben Franklin called compound interest the “stone that will turn lead into gold.”

So what am I talking about?

If you were given a choice to receive one million dollars in one month or one cent that doubled every day for 30 days, which one would you choose?

Most people will say I will take the one million dollars. The reality is that the one cent that doubles everyday will give you $5,368,709.12 in thirty days.

Surprised? Well that is the power of compound interest and if you looked at the figures it will be like this:

Day 1: $.01

Day 2: $.02

Day 3: $.04

Day 4: $.08

Day 5: $.16

Day 6: $.32

Day 7: $.64

Day 8: $1.28

Day 9: $2.56

Day 10: $5.12

Day 11: $10.24

Day 12: $20.48

Day 13: $40.96

Day 14: $81.92

Day 15: $163.84

Day 16: $327.68

Day 17: $655.36

Day 18: $1,310.72

Day 19: $2,621.44

Day 20: $5,242.88

Day 21: $10,485.76

Day 22: $20,971.52

Day 23: $41,943.04

Day 24: $83,886.08

Day 25: $167,772.16

Day 26: $335,544.32

Day 27: $671,088.64

Day 28: $1,342,177.28

Day 29: $2,684,354.56

Day 30: $5,368,709.12

As you can see the major growth is in the fourth quarter. So what is that saying to you? What it says to me is that if you buy and hold property today with the benefit of compound interest it will double in seven to ten years.

In the early seventies I was selling house and land in the City of Knox for around $15,000. Today those same houses are worth over $600,000.

So consider this! Would you pay off your mortgage early when you can get a much better return by investing the money.

In other words, you can earn more by investing than you would save by paying off your mortgage early.

Which leads me to point out that instead of buying a property for cash, you are better off borrowing and buying more than one.

I hope that I got you thinking. And if I have got you thinking, I feel that I have been of real value to you, because it is my mission to help and assist people to create wealth through property.

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If you want to have a no-obligation chat about this and more, please feel free to email me on Bertram@itsabreeze.com.au with a subject heading of “Lets chat’ and we can set up a time to have our chat.

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“90 per cent of all millionaires become so through owning real estate… The wise young man or wage earner of today invests his money in real estate.” – Andrew Carnegie (billionaire industrialist)

Despite our obsession as a nation with owning property, only a small percentage of us actually own an investment property, and very few of us have more than one.

It usually comes down to one thing – fear. Many of us don’t want to step out of our comfort zone out of fear that something might go wrong.

We convince ourselves that we’re ok as we are, that we’re managing financially, and it’s probably best not to ‘rock the boat’. Unfortunately, it is this line of thinking that holds us back from achieving a better life for ourselves and our families.

Fear of taking the property investment plunge is all too common and can be caused by a number of things. Overcoming the fear can be challenging but it’s the first and most important step on the path to a successful property portfolio.

Begin by trying understanding the root cause of your fear. Are you holding back from starting or progressing your strategy because you’re worried your investments won’t make money or you think you can’t afford it? Perhaps you think it all seems too hard and requires too much time? The truth is it is easy when you know how!

Let’s look each of these fears and what you need to consider the resources you can tap into to help you re-wire your mindset and overcome your concerns.

Fear #1: What if I don’t make money?

With a well planned strategy and business-like mindset, your risk of failure is very low. Remember, ALL investments come with some risk. Aside from cash, which is delivering very uninspiring returns at the moment, property is one of the most stable options around and has been for many, many years.

Investing is simply a necessity of life if you want to build wealth and keep on top of the rising cost of living. We all need to ensure our money is working as hard as possible for us and property does just that for you and has done for over a hundred years.

Everyone has access to professional financial advice – seek it out so you can set your goals, know your limitations and can put your fears to rest.

Fear #2: I can’t afford it

Some of Australia’s most successful property investors have built significant and highly successful portfolios on low incomes and very little savings.

There are many investment options out there for people with a low or no deposit. House & land packages, vendor financing and using a guarantor are three possible solutions, among others. People forget about the asset value of their own home and leave it under utilised.

If you’re concerned about not being able to service the monthly loan payments, focus on areas where property can be positively geared. You won’t find yourself out of pocket. On the contrary, you’ll have extra cash every week.

I’ve seen many people on low incomes and with very little in savings go onto achieve amazing things – all they have needed is motivation and action.

Fear #3: It seems too hard and too time consuming

Fear derives from the unknown. If you don’t have the time to educate yourself then tap the knowledge and experience of the It’s a Breeze Team that are all here to guide and support you through your investment journey.

If you can, it’s worth investing some of your own time learning about strategy options, the investment process, and potential investment areas.

These days, everything you need to know is at your fingertips.

Consider spending an hour a night or during your lunch break educating yourself. Ultimately, it’s the knowledge you possess that will give you the confidence to take action and keep moving forward.

We all find it hard to find time outside of our daily routine for other pursuits – but what is more important than creating a better life for yourself and your family?

Or it is as simple as emailing bertram@itsabreeze.com.au and connecting with us to guide you on your way.